Houts, Humphrey highlight Georgia honors

Ashley Houts has gone from high school homecoming queen to SEC Freshman of the Year.

Georgia's starting point guard made a near-seamless transition from Dade County in the northwest Georgia town of Trenton to the rigors of playing in perhaps the nation's most rugged conference.

"I feel like the hard work is paying off and good things come to those who work for them," Houts said Tuesday after it was announced she was one of three Lady Bulldogs named to the SEC All-Freshman team in voting by the league's coaches.

Forward Tasha Humphrey was a unanimous first-team All-SEC selection for the third straight season.

Humphrey is fifth in the SEC in scoring at 16.1 points per game and seventh in rebounding with 7.9 per game.

"My teammates have always done a great job getting me the ball when I need it," Humphrey said. "This year, more in particular, it's been like clockwork because everybody has a feel for each other."

Tennessee's Candace Parker was named SEC Player of the Year, and Pat Summitt received top coaching honors.

Summitt, in her 33rd season as coach, guided No. 2 Tennessee to a 27-2 record (14-0 in the SEC) and a No. 1 seed in the SEC Tournament, which opens Thursday in Duluth.

Parker is the first Lady Vol to be honored as player of the year since Chamique Holdsclaw in 1998 and 1999.

The other Georgia freshmen honored were forwards Angel Robinson and Christy Marshall, who shared the league's Co-Sixth Woman of the Year with Vanderbilt's Liz Sherwood.

Houts becomes the fourth Georgia player picked as the league's top freshman in the past seven seasons, following Humphrey (2005), Kara Braxton (2002) and Christi Thomas (2001).

"It really wouldn't matter to me if she was SEC Freshman of the Year or not," coach Andy Landers said. "What she has done as a rookie on basically a veteran basketball team has been outstanding, especially when you consider the number of minutes that she has played."

Houts is tied for the SEC lead in minutes at 33.38 per game, is third in steals with an average of 2.66 and leads all freshman with 3.7 assists per game.

"I had an idea that I would be able to play a little bit, but I don't think I'd say this much and be able to take it over as the point guard and do some things that we've done," said Houts, who drove the length of the court to hit a baseline jumper to lift Georgia to an upset win over LSU on Feb. 1. "Things have worked out for the good."

Guard Cori Chambers, who has tied her own single season program record for 3-pointers this season with 78 and broke the career 3-point record, was a second-team All-SEC selection for the second straight season.

It's the first time that three players from the same team were selected to the eight-player all-freshman team.

Marshall averages 8.1 points per game and moved into a starter's role late in the regular season. Robinson averages 8.0 points and 5.2 rebounds per game and leads Georgia with a field goal percentage of .547.

"Throughout the course of the season, if not every week or every two weeks, we always have a freshman of the week," Humphrey said. "That says a lot about the type of players we've brought into the program this year and the huge impact they've had."

No. 10 Georgia (24-5) is the second-seed in the SEC Tournament and will play Friday at 3:30 p.m. at Gwinnett Arena in Duluth against the Kentucky-Arkansas winner.